Re:place

Taking Flight

Taking Flight is a series of free printmaking and paper-making workshops and a traveling series of interactive, pop-up exhibitions that spreads awareness and promotes the planting of native plants (especially Swamp Milkweed) to support bees and other pollinators. This project has three parts: Making, Installing, and Revealing.

Making- workshop participants create artwork to both take home and that combine into an exhibition. Three types of workshops will be offered: 1) monotypes on recycled paper 2)Schoolchildren will create seed-embedded paper in STEM events with the Butterfly House, a division of the Missouri Botanical Garden and at workshops in parks. 3) At Central Print, I will offer workshops to create collographs of native plants on archival paper.

For Installing- I will build a free-standing structure to hold prints from the workshop and a regional map of St. Louis region. Colorful 5 x 5 inch monotypes from workshops will fill a 15 foot wall in a vibrant quilt pattern. The colorful layer will be hidden beneath drab, seed-embedded paper squares from the paper-making workshops. I will attach each seed-paper square with a single map pin.

Revealing- This would happen at various venues around the St. Louis region, such as an interactive Forest Park Visitor Center Pop-Up Exhibition Event. Participants of the exhibition each remove one pin and its square of seed-paper. They take home the square to plant their own pollinator gardens. They use the pin to mark their zip code on the St. Louis region map. The regional map will begin to mark the future pollinator gardens. Venues could also be banks or clinics as the display will be free-standing.

The visual metaphor will illustrate how anyone can contribute small acts of care to create a strong patchwork that supports native wildlife. Empowering the region to take part in art-making and supporting pollinators and ecological stewardship is a net benefit to all.